Moses Ha-darshan

Moses ha-Darshan (i.e., the Expositor) OF NARBONNE, a rabbi noted as a pulpit orator of more than usual influence and power as well as an exegete of the O.-T. Scriptures, flourished in France in the second half of the 11th century. He- was the teacher of Nathan the Jew, who is noted as another great light of the Jewish pulpit, and wrote a number of valuable commentaries, among which a commentary on the Pentateuch, resting largely on the Midrashic lore, is the most widely circulated and esteemed. His greatest work is a commentary on the Hebrew Scriptures, which is alternately quoted by the respective names of משה הדרשן פרושי ר Expositions of R. Moses the Expositor, בראשית רבה , the Great Bereshith, Bereshith Rabba Major, and Bereshith Rabba R. Mose ha-Darshan, and which has not as yet come to light. Copious and numerous fragments of it. however, are given by Rashi in his commentaries on Ge 35:8; Ge 48:7; Nu 8:7; Nu 7:18-23; Nu 11:20-21; Nu 15:14; Nu 19:22; Nu 26:24,36; Nu 28:19; Nu 32:24,42; Nu 33:1; De 21:14; De 27:24; Jos 5:9; Ps 40:2; Ps 60:4; Ps 62:12; Ps 68:17; Ps 80:6; Pr 5:19; Pr 26:10; Job 36:1; by Raymond Martin in his Pugio Fidei (Par. 1651, Leips. 1687), both in the original Hebrew and in a Latin translation; by Porchert in his Victoria adversus impios Hebrceos (Paris, 1520) ; by Joshua Lorki, or Hieronymus de Santa Fide, as he was called after embracing Christianity, in his Hebrceomastix (Frankfort-on- the-Main, 1602); and by Galatin in his De Arcanis Catholicae veritatis (Basle, 1550). These fragments, which are exceedingly important contributions to the history of interpretation in the Middle Ages, show that R. Moses strove to explain the words and the context, and that he interspersed his literal expositions with ancient Haggadas, as well as with the interpretations of the sages of olden days. See Zunz, Die Gottesdienstlichen Vortrsge der Juden, pages 286-293; Ginsburg, in Kitto,